News:

4/9/2008:
The Department encourages all students to please check the registrars list of classes to keep up with the changes in course scheduling, and to see what is available for the upcoming fall semester.

3/28/2008:
The Department of Botany would like to express their heartfelt condolences to the family of Dr. Mildred M. Griffith. Dr. Griffith a Professor Emeritus of the Botany Department, was one of the first women to join the faculty of the Univeristy of Florida when it became coeducational. She was an active member of the Botanical Society, Sigma Xi, Gainesville Garden Club, Gainesville Rose Society, and was twice chairman of the Founder's Circle. Memorial Services will be held Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 10am in the First United Methodist Church.

3/25/2008:
We are pleased to announce that the Departmental Annual Alumnus Newsletter, has been converted to a pdf. Link: The Gator Botanist

3/19/2008:
The Departmental Spring Social will be held on Friday, the 21st of March, at 3:45.
Events will take place at the Cancer and Genetics Research Complex, room 451A/B.

3/5/2008:
The Botany Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Walter Judd will be teaching "Tropical Botany" again this summer. Link!

Awards and Honors

Botany Department Year in Review
For the year incompassing 1-01-2007 - to 1-01-08:

Faculty and Staff

• Dr. Schuur received NSF's Ecosystem Science Cluster CAREER award.
• Dr Schuur was featured in a 6 segment article on Pulse of the Planet, a National Public Radio Show on January 8th.
• Drs. Pam and Doug Soltis are featured on MSNBC. The article, titled" Floral 'Big Bang' led to stunning diversity", can be found at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21980886/
• Dr. Pamela S. Soltis was promoted by the University of Florida to the rank of Distinguished Professor.
• On April 17th, 2007 PBS NOVA first aired “First Flower”, a documentary based upon the joint Research of UF and Chinese scientists. On Valentine’s day (Feb 15, 2008), PBS NOVA aired the documentary again. The program brought the University of Florida major national recognition on a major television network.
• Dr. Judd received the University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship award.
• Dr. Judd’s book “Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach” is in its third publication, and is one of the cornerstone texts in the area of plant systematics.
• Dr. Judd’s “Revision of Miconia sect. Chaenopleura (Miconieae, Melastomataceae) in the Greater Antilles” is being considered for an award as best monograph.
• Paper published by Drs. Pam and Doug Soltis and coworkers in PNAS helps to resolve aspects of Darwin’s “abominable mystery”. News release is picked up by major news branches (NBC, ABC), with subsequent write up in popular press.
• Dr. Bernie Hauser receives best teacher of the year award
• Kathy Jones received the outstanding employee of the year award (the second current staff member to receive this honor).

Graduate Students:

• Sam Brockington received the Mosely award for the best paper in structural/developmental Botany at the Botanical Society of America Meetings, 2007
• Danielle Palow was awarded the NSF funded UF-SEAGEP award for her research
• Laura Schreeg received a Working Forests in the Tropics Summer Research Grant for work in Peru and Panama.  This is a UF program supported through NSF.
• Laura Schreeg also received funding to participate in a field course in Brazil.
• Jordan Mayor received the Forest Fungal Ecology Research Award issued by the Mycological Society of America ($1,500) for research in Alaska.
• Jenny Schafer received the Florida Native Plant Society Endowment Grant
• Paula Mejia was awarded the SEAGEP fellowship and Jerry Britt Award for field work.
• Monica Arakaki received the 2007 award from the International Office for outstanding academic achievement by an international student.
• Claudia Maria Segovia-Salcedo received the 2007 Delzie Demaree Travel Award to attend the Annual Systematics Symposium "
•  Claudia Maria Segovia-Salcedo received in January, 2008 the SENACYT scholarship from the Ecuadorian Government ($30,000) to pursue her graduate studies at UF.
• Ashley Morris won the 2007 Austin Award.
• Christy Edwards, a former Graduate Student in the Department of Botany, received an Anderson Dissertation Fellowship from the CLAS in the amount of $5,000.
• Joseph Veldman received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award for his research on tropical forest replacement by savanna in lowland Bolivia.
• Joseph Veldman also received the Garden Club of America Award in Tropical Botany.
• Josh Clayton received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award for his research on the biogeography of the angiosperm family Simaroubaceae

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Last Updated 6/28/05
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